“At Any Time”: Ukraine Warns Russia Could Shift Troops to Belarus Bases

Belarus's self-proclaimed  leader, Alexander Lukashenko, could allow Russia to deploy troops to bases already prepared at any time, even as no such buildup is currently detected, a Ukrainian border official warned on May 28.

Andrii Demchenko, spokesperson for Ukraine's State Border Guard Service, made the assessment during a televised broadcast, emphasizing that Kyiv must hold fortified positions along the entire frontier with Belarus.

He stressed that the requirement covers every region adjacent to Belarus, stretching from Volyn in the west to Chernihiv in the east.

"We must have strong defensive positions along the entire length of the border with Belarus," Demchenko stated. "This applies to the Volyn region, the Chernihiv region, and to other regions that border this country."

Demchenko noted that surveillance assets have not detected enemy forces massing close to the frontier. He cautioned, however, that Russia could shift its troops at any time, with Belarus supplying its territory and infrastructure for such a move.

"As of now, judging by the technical surveillance assets we use, we do not see any forces already concentrated in the immediate vicinity of our border," he added.

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War in Ukraine

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His remarks came amid renewed friction with Minsk. Belarus’s Security Council has charged Ukraine with repeated attempts to strike border infrastructure using combat drones. Its State Secretary, Alexander Volfovich, claimed more than a hundred Ukrainian drones had entered Belarusian airspace over the past week.

Demchenko urged against reacting to such allegations while insisting Ukraine stay ready for any escalation, warning that Minsk could exploit the claims to justify broader aggression.

The hardening of Ukraine's northern frontier has expanded across the western stretch of the border in recent weeks.

Defensive work has been reinforced in the Rivne, Zhytomyr, and Volyn regions, where local authorities have coordinated directly with central leadership against the renewed threat of a Russian thrust from the north.

Further east, the same effort has concentrated on the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, which border both Belarus and Russia's Bryansk region. Construction of fortifications and the deployment of additional security forces have been focused there, in the same direction from which Russia launched its 2022 full-scale war in Ukraine.

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